Modern History
by antra
Summary: Albus Severus Potter has to do history project about the Voldemort war. He wouldn't do something about his family, no, his project will be anything but boring. Rating for later chapters, First published fic and first in english. Reviews welcome
1. Chapter 1

Albus Severus Potter settled on his four poster bed und looked at the book he lent from the library.  
"_Modern History of the Wizarding World: from Grindelwald to Voldemort"  
_Albus didn't need to look for his family, they told him, his siblings and cousins what they did in the war.  
No, Albus Potter was not interested in the entrys concerning the Potters or Weasleys. He wanted to know something of his namesake, the late Severus Snape.

_Snape, Severus Tobias  
__(Jan 1960 - Mai 1998)  
__Specialties: Master of Potions, Legilimens, Occlumens, Animagus, Creator of Spells, DADA, Experimental Potions  
__Alignment in the war: Double-Spy for both the Order of Phoenix and the Deatheaters  
__Positions:  
__in Hogwarts: Head of Slytherin, Master of Potions, DADA-Intructor, Headmaster of Hogwarts  
__in the Order of Phoenix: Double-Spy for the Order of Phoenix, Right Hand of Albus Dumbledore  
__with the Death Eaters:__Double-Spy for the Deatheaters, Inner Circle, Right Hand of Lord Voldemort/Tom Marvolo Riddle  
__Born to a mother of an old neutral Pureblooded family and a muggle father, the motive for Severus Snape joining the Death Eaters is not known. The Death Eaters recruited him because of his natural talent in Potions and Dark Magic and his brillant and logical mind. He was part of the inner circle and considered the right hand of Voldemort in the second Voldemort War.  
__Shortly after joining the Deaths Eaters in the first war Snape realised what he had done and seeked help with the Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore. He was recruited as a spy and sent back to the Death Eaters. When there was a opening in the teaching staff Snape was more than qualified for he went there under the pretense of spying on the Headmaster for Voldemort (See: Academic Achievments). For that service he was spared Azkaban after the first war.  
__The time between the first and the second war Snape stayed with his teaching in Hogwarts, cared for the connections of the other Death Eaters, knowing Voldemort would come back and his position as order spy would be needed.  
__In that time he also designed a number of medical potions and spells now used in Aurory (See: The lost Spells for combat situations; A guide to modern Aurory; Medical Potions for the versed Potioneer; Complicated Potions the easy way: the Snape Modifications (all posthumously published according to his extensive notes)).  
__In the second war he took his prior position for both his employers..._

Albus scanned the rest of the long entry and shut the book when he came to the academical articles and books written by Snape and the ones about Snape himself.  
What would he need to prioritize for his history project and what aspects were really interesting?  
He wanted his project not only to be the best it could be, he wanted it to be brillant. When Binns had given them the Assignment to make a project out of one of the persons of the war, independent from the side of the war, everybody assumed he would do something about his father.  
Albus let them assume.  
Then he had the idea. Snape had been a Headmaster, to be precise: the youngest Headmaster in the History of Hogwarts. He died in that position. There had to be a Portrait of him in the Headmistress office.  
Albus left his dungeon home. He had to talk to a portrait.


	2. Chapter 2

Headmistress McGonagall looked up as the Gargoyle told her a child wanted to see her.  
She gave a nod to let the pupil in.  
Al Potter walked into the office and looked over the headmaster portraits. A few of them were sleeping, others were interested in his reason for coming and a few had left their portraits.  
"Mr Potter. This is the first time you came here. Did something happen?" Headmistress McGonagall gestured him to sit.  
Albus concentrated on the living Headmistress.  
"Headmistress, Professor Binns gave us a project about the last war. We have to base our work on one Person of our choosing."  
McGonagall nodded and waited for the child to go on.  
"I wanted to write about headmaster Snape. I thought I could ask his Portrait for a few things."  
Minerva beamed.  
Binns gave this project every year to his third years. Nearly half of the pupils every year decided on doing their project on Harry Potter or one of of the other two of the golden trio or Albus Dumbledore. A few had relatives they based their work on, a few decided on an auror or a prominent victim like Madam Bones. And fewer still decided on a notorious Death Eater like Bellatrix Lestrange, Walden McNair or even Voldemort himself.  
Nobody ever tried the very complicated case of Severus Snape. Because of his role in the war he was to much work for most especially just for a history project.  
"I'm very happy to hear that, Mr Potter. You can't ask at the moment if he wants to be of help. But I know that he likes to go to the picture of the library of Alexandria for new reading material. It is on the third floor of the Ravenclaw Tower."  
Al Potter smiled and left the office.  
The formerly and the current Head of Hogwarts looked after the child.  
"The boy doesn't know what he has done to himself." Muttered the portrait of Armando Dippet.  
Most of the other Portraits nodded in their canvas. Dumbledore thought the same but decided against saying anything.  
It was Phineas Nigellus Black that answered. He was sure that Dippet was wrong.  
"He knows exactly what he is doing to himself. It just doesn't matter to him."  
Most of the other Heads made it clear that they had a different opinion.  
A Headmistress of the 16 century, Headmistress Rebecca LeCroix, a regal Ravenclaw that all her successors knew as an intelligent witch with a sharp tongue and even sharper mind looked thoughtful to the Slytherin.  
This could be an interesting diversion for the portraits.  
She didn't know how right she was.


	3. Chapter 3

I realised I didn't think of the disclaimer at all. It is late but better than never. Especially since I don't have a few millions for legal purposes lying around.  
**Harry Potter belongs to **Joanne K. Rowling**, Scholastic Books **and a few others. This is not for profit. I'm only playing with them and promise to put them back after I'm done with them.

Severus Snape decided he had enough new scrolls to read und left the canvas to walk back to the headmistress office. When he wanted some privacy and quite he made himself comfortable in a still life in the same corridor as the library picture. He could read there, write into his notebook and eat fruits. Nobody bothered him there.  
Not normally at least.  
The child had all the signs of a Potter. The Eyes, the unruly hair and the face that told him one of the parents was a Weasley.  
The crest of Slytherin.  
Even with seeing the boy the first time he knew this was Albus Severus Potter. Minerva had told him of all the children of the Weasleys and the Potters. When he was told the name of the second Potter child he didn't react, but he found it interesting.  
And after the sorting of Al Potter to Slytherin he took the liberty of a little Slytherin smile.  
"Mr Potter. I'm surprised to see you in this corridor."  
Albus was surprised that the Portrait knew him. He decided not to react. "The headmistress told me you like to come here. I thought a former headmaster stayed in their canvas to help the current head and that that was the reason for the portraits."  
Snape lifted an eyebrow at that. Yes, that was the dominant reason and could be found in "Hogwarts a history".  
There were also other reasons he had realized after his death. It wasn't something that was normally discussed when somebody living was there, but whatever the wizarding world thought of Albus Dumbledore, the other heads were clearly not impressed with him and his way of handling things. And they had no problem to let him know it either.  
But Snapes currents thoughts went to why Mr Potter had wanted to see him.  
"And why did you search for me, Mr Potter?"  
Albus knew that Headmaster Snape had a …complicated character and was perhaps not as happy as others would be about being researched. His help would made it easier but it was not mandatory.  
"Professor Binns gave us a project about the last war. We have to base our work on one Person of our choosing. I wanted to write about you, Headmaster."  
Snape didn't say anything. It was a surprising choice, but the boy was a Slytherin. He would have reasons.  
"Mr Potter, explain to me your reasons for choosing me and I think about it."  
Albus was not surprised about that. He would have been disappointed had it been different. Rushing ahead without thinking was not a Slytherin trade.  
"Everybody expects me to do my project about one of my family or even my father seeing that my brother did the same. I don't think such a project will be interesting with all the people who have already done that. I looked through the old projects, nobody ever tried to do a project based on you."  
Doing something nobody tried before, yes, the boy had ambition befitting a Slytherin.  
Snape would have to think about it. He would have to think on what the terms he wanted for him to talk about certain things and what would be acceptable for 14 year olds.  
He looked thoughtful after the boy as he took his leave and decided to reflect over the irony of a Potter doing a project on him on a later date. Now he wanted to go over the scrolls he found in the picture of the library of Alexandria. He had a bet with the portrait of another Potions Master at ground level of Hufflepuff tower that the potion they had different opinions about had already been used in antiquity.


	4. Chapter 4

Severus Snape went out of the way when the painted cauldron started to smoke and waited for his concoction to cool.

His mind was on other matters, but he went through the security protocol without a concrete thought.

"What is on your mind?"

Severus looked from his cauldron to the painting on the other side of the room.

"The Potter boy."

The older wizard nodded, he expected this when Madam LeCroix told them what was happening to their youngest portrait.

One of the best secrets in the wizarding world was the portrait room with the Unspeakables.

Just because somebody was dead was no reason not to use their skills. And the Unspeakables had no problem recruiting portraits when they had useful skills and where capable of this kind of work.

With Severus there were 5 of them.

Severus himself was a genius in potions, dark arts and spell inventing. And this was without his role as a spy. They didn't even think twice about offering him employment after his death. And Severus didn't want to end like most of the other heads that slept through the day after a few years. The average life of a portrait was very long after all.

The second in the portrait room was Madam Le Croix. The former Ravenclaw Headmistress was an Arithmancer through and through.

For 4 centuries she was the eyes and ears in the Head office of Hogwarts. With Snape she wasn't the only former Head of Hogwarts anymore.

From time to time the both of them needed to be in the portraits room at the same time. They both had their work after all.

The other Heads of Hogwarts thought that the two of them had an affair and both Madam LeCroix and Snape had nothing against using this. It gave them time to be away and to speak with each other in private. They ignored the teasing of the others. And the other Headmasters found it downright fascinating when they flitted together out of their canvas or occupied just one canvas to talk to each other in private but to call the other one with title and surname in an unemotional respectful tone.

The wizard on the other side of the room was a historian. Historian Wenning-Thorne saw the changes in the magical world and why they had a happened. His direct neighbour was Madam Hertz. She wasn't a seer in the strict sense but clairvoyant and kept this gift even after her death. She saw possible futures.

The 5 was the former Medi-Witch and former Head of St Mungos Lady Carlisle.

They had a discussion about the request of Al Potter after Madam LeCroix had told them of it. They had waited for Severus next trip to the library of Alexandria so they had time without him. They didn't want to dictate him what he should do. He had had enough of that when he was alive.


	5. Chapter 5

Al Potter went settled his eyes on the still life before him with Headmaster Snape. He wrote something in a leather bound notebook and didn't react to the pupil.

As a Slytherin he knew what to expect. Al didn't say anything, he knew that Snape was aware of him and waited.

Snape stopped writing, cleaned the quill and put the ink away. He slid a bit parchment in the notebook to safe the other pages from the fresh ink and focussed on the boy.

"Mr Potter, did you think about possibilities regarding an implementation?"

Did the boy think about how to do this? Did he prepare himself?

Al Potter just nodded. "Yes Sir. I thought that it would be best to meet in an unused corridor or room of your choosing to not be in the way of Headmistress McGonagall. I found a few possible quit rooms around the Slytherin dungeons that could be used.

Since I don't know how much time you would be willing and able to invest I formulated a list of general questions sorted after topic and depth. Everything I already know is integrated in this questionnaire.

Depending on the answers and your willingness to answer more questions I would create a working draft for you to read."

Snape didn't say anything.

The boy did seem to know the work ethics Snape expected of his pupils.

Honestly, he already decided on helping the boy. Potter would be writing this project, with Snape's help or without and this way he had a bit of control over it.


	6. Chapter 6

"So, who are you doing your history paper on? Your father, am I right?" asked Samuel Zabini.

Al didn't even look up from his arithmancy homework. "You can read my project after I'm done with it and Professor Binns has marked it, same as every other. I won't discuss it or tell you who I decided on."

Sam shook his head. "I don't understand, it's not a big thing. I mean, come on, this is for history. I will do my project on the Prewitt brothers. Lots of information and they didn't live very long. Should be easy.

Since Al won't tell us, who did you decide on, Scorpius?"

The Malfoy heir didn't even have to think about that. "Regulus Black. My grandmother is willing to tell me everything about him I need to know and you don't find many projects on him."

So Al had not been the only one to browse through the old projects.

Binns had all the old projects divided after the person, all staked up in his classroom. Every time somebody new was sorted in, the space for that just appeared.

And the projects that got an O were marked on the outside.

Everybody was allowed to read them. The Idea was that if they knew what happened and knew about the people something like that wouldn't happen so easy in the future anymore.

The idea that everybody after him could judge his work was one of the reasons for his decision to invest a lot of time and energy in this.

That and because he wanted to be recognized for his work. He didn't just want to be the son of Harry Potter or of Quidditch star Ginny Potter or brother of the great James Sirius Potter, not that Albus thought his brother was great in anything but being a git.

With a sigh he stopped writing and looked over his Arithmancy work. If he finished this today he would have the whole afternoon tomorrow with Snape.

The former Headmaster had decided on a nice little room in the dungeons with landscapes instead of portraits.

It was conveniently near the common room but not in an used corridor. With the vast dungeons and sub-dungeons the Slytherins had more than enough space. Everybody who wanted to be on his own could do that without a problem.

"I don't know what I should write in my homework for Muggle Studies." commented Scorpius.

Malfoy was pretty good in Muggle Studies for somebody who knew only the theory, but he wasn't as good as in his other classes and it irked him. But then he was the best in Wizarding Culture. Both were mandatory in Hogwarts for all pupils now. Muggle Studies to make the wizards understand more about the Muggles and that they could find their way around Muggle Britain and Wizarding Culture because a lot of things were considered known that the Muggleborns couldn't know coming from a completely different backround. The only ones that benefited these lessons before were the muggleborn Slytherins with Snape as Head of House.

The changes made to the curriculum of Hogwarts, St Mungos and the training of the Aurors were something Al had already written. It wasn't something he had needed help with, everything could be found if you just did the work of looking.

Al wanted help with the information that couldn't be found in the books: the how, the why, the interactions between the sides, the factions belonging to the sides and the factions between each other. It wasn't just history but politics.

The moment Al decided on Snape he realized the opportunity it gave him.

He thought how much he could rattle perspectives with that.

And he planned his work.


	7. Chapter 7

_I changed a bit of the history so it fits better. __In short: Severus became a Death Eater with 17 while still in school and a spy with 19. The other changes will become clear by itself.  
To the questionnaire, I won't really go into the questions, it's going to be about the complete work and the results because of it. And there will be questions answered what Death Eaters do when they aren't murdering muggles for fun_

* * *

"Headmistress LeCroix, can I have a few minutes of your time, please?"

The portrait stilled. The Potter boy, what could he want?

"I will decide that after you tell me what you want, Mr Potter."

Al nodded.

"Of course, Headmistress.

I think you are aware that I work on a history project concerning Headmaster Snape.

I did a lot of independent research and Headmaster Snape helps me since 2 months. My project has to be finished in 3 months. I wanted to add a few arithmancy calculations based on his answers.

I'm a third year, Headmistress. I can't calculate the necessary steps, there are too many variables. And I don't want to ask my arithmancy teacher."

Madam LeCroix didn't even had to ask why he wouldn't want to ask Vector. She would tell the boy he wasn't old enough and to wait for the moment he could do the calculations without help. The second reason was clear the moment Al Potter spoke about his teacher, he wrinkled his front. Madam Vector was a competent teacher but she lacked the imagination and perspective neutrality to be really good in her chosen field.

Most students didn't realise that at all and the ones that did didn't find that out in their first year of learning the subject.

Suddenly Al Potter was somebody who would really benefit of somebody supporting him in the field. The boy could work hard, he did so for Severus.

She just had to wait for the question she knew would come.

"Would you be willing to calculate the variables for me? It would benefit Headmaster Snape, I thought _you_ would be interested in helping him."

Oh yes, he was a Slytherin. A very thinly veiled comment to show her he knew about the relationship of Snape and herself. Their little white lie went better then they ever suspected.

For that comment she decided he had to stew a bit in his own juice. She was a portrait, she had all the time of the world after all.

While the boy waited she estimated him visibly. And there she found it, the reaction she wanted to see: uncertainty.

"I'll help you with the calculations under the condition that you learn the calculations and steps to the best of your capabilities. And these capabilities will be decided by me."

Potter thought about it.

A very good idea, Snape was not the only hard taskmaster in the history of Hogwarts teachers. The boy knew that.

"Headmistress LeCroix, when do you have time for a new pupil?"


	8. Chapter 8

Madam LeCroix looked down at the child.

The boy was working hard at understanding the calculations. He had to be, she knew what she expected of her pupils.

Between her and Severus the boy was drowning in work.

They were both careful that he did all his homework, learned for school, ate and slept but otherwise he was always busy with one or both of the portraits.

His friends knew when he found something interesting he didn't do anything else till he was finished.

He had the same obsessive pedantry as uncle Percy without the lacking personality.

It was a character trait that was readily accepted in Slytherin house. All people with big ideas were obsessive in on way or the other.

After his death, after the people heard what happened and what he did, Severus Snape was considered the epitome of Slytherin.

Obsessive.

The Dark Lord

Obsessive.

Salazar Slytherin

Obsessive

Albus Severus Potter

Obsessive

OK, not necessarily in that order.

* * *

Severus lounged in a nice landscape and saw Madam LeCroix and Mr Potter working on the calculations.

Severus had concentrated on the arithmancy needed for potions developing and spells crafting, but he got his arithmany NEWT and had a working understanding.

The calculations the boy wanted could have been done by a fifth class, the problem was having all the needed information.

They had these informations.

It was the last part of Potter's project, Severus already read everything else and was impressed with the work. At least he was as impressed as he would get with the student.

After he commented that is was "Satisfactory", Al Potter was ecstatic and grinned wide as a reaction.

For that he earned "The Brow". Al realised he should have waited with showing his happiness.

What started as a little project for history escalated in a book about the war, the political groups and the inner workings.

It wasn't something you would expect of a third year.

Severus had given Albus a lot of information that wasn't known outside of the circle of Death Eaters. He answered questions that nobody ever thought of asking. Or did everybody really think they didn't do anything else but muggle torturing and killing? Or that you recruited a bunch of power hungry Slytherins be crucioing them to insanity?

Dunderheads all around.


	9. Chapter 9

**I was told that I don't have to stand in line at the job center, my employment will be extendet despite the changes due to the economic crisis.  
As you can imagine, I'm frenetically happy about that. To celebrate this occassion I even indulged in homemade hot chocolate and a movie evening with hand-picked horror movies, the worst I could find in my extensive collection.  
I laughed a lot. **

**There is one problem with my continually good mood:  
i'm not able to write like that! I need to be my cynical pessimistic self for writing.  
So, give me a bit of time, I'm sure I will be back to normal in no time at all**

**This chapter was written before all this happened.**

* * *

The obituary of Severus Tobias Snape.

Albus Potter never saw something that represented better the strange status his chosen person had had in his lifetime and even in his death. And that was after it was known what had happened and on which side he really stood.

_Severus Tobias Snape  
Headmaster of Hogwarts  
Order of Merlin, 1. class  
Master of Potions, DADA, Experimental Potions, Creator of Spells_

_Fallen in the Battle of Hogwarts_

_The funeral will be held at the graveyard of Hogwarts  
Sunday, 7 June, at dusk_

There was the symbol of Hogwarts seeing that he had been the Headmaster and the little symbol for Slytherin as his house. The few words were in the middle, otherwise the whole page of the "Daily Prophet" was blank. It was a very old tradition and had not been used for a while, but it seemed fitting. The obituary matched Snape's personality: direct and to the point.

The time the funeral was being held was strange also. The british wizarding world had 3 traditions defining when they held funerals: at dawn, in the late morning or at midnight, depending which tradition you followed.

At the 7th june every other who died in the battle was already buried.

His remains were given to Minerva McGonagall after they had the evidence that was left by Dumbledore to exonerate Snape.  
Albus Potter thought of the tomb of Headmaster Snape in the graveyard of Hogwarts.

It was exactly like the obituary, traditional, a bit antiquated in the way it looked, direct and to the point.

Just the usual information and an inscription:

_Dedication beyond all measure _

It was fitting.

The "Daily Prophet" of the day after the funeral held a recount of it.

_We heard so much about Severus Snape, so much nobody ever imagined.  
Who was this man, this guy who worked half of his life just to bring the Dark Lord down?  
A brilliant wizard in many fields, wasted on his surroundings. And after everything there is nobody that can say they really knew him.  
Strange that he had to die to be accepted for his work, regardless of which work we are talking about: The demanding and grim teacher, the distrustet spy, the ground-breaking potioneer or the youngest Headmaster in the history of Hogwarts.  
Yesterday was his funeral.  
The graveyard of Hogwarts looks strange at dusk.  
His tomb is like the role he played: straight, dark and bleak.  
People waiting and watching.  
There was a sign at the gate leading in the graveyard: "_If you don't know what to say, say nothing."  
_It was silent the whole time.  
by Gaylord Scribble_

He had just found the intro to his work.

Albus Severus Potter smiled.


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry for the long wait but RL was keeping me busy. Let's just say I'm back and happy to write again.

For all those who asked, no, Al's project will not be a chapter in this story, perhaps an excerpt or two, but not nearly the whole thing.  
When I imagine it in my mind, Al's project has the thickness of a complete book, little overachiever that he is.  
The story is not about the project itself but about the how, the why and the reactions.  
I know a few of you are enamored with the idea, but this is not what this is about.  
If somebody wants to write the project: Just tell me were to dump the whole concept sitting in my mind and you can write it. I would be happy to read it.

* * *

_Imagine a room full of people in black cloaks and silver masks.  
Imagine a thin man with scaly skin and red eyes looking at you. Knowing that he can read your very thoughts. Imagine yourself not believing, knowing_ _one idea of your real thoughts will bring you a very slow and painful death.  
The Death Eaters._

_Now imagine a room full of people glaring, despising and hating you. Knowing they don't care one iota about your life or the danger your facing on a daily basis.  
Knowing not one of them believe you about anything, they don't give you information you need or lie and make your work harder just because they can.  
The Order of the Phoenix._

_And now tell me how long you could have worked like that._

* * *

Albus sighed and looked over the books.

He had needed something about his own father. The relationship between Severus Snape and Harry Potter was not something he could leave out on in his project, even if he never wanted to do something like that.

It would be incomplete without the part and Albus hated not doing his best.

Just for this he read something about his own father.

He remembered it from before, James was always sitting on the edge of his bed when uncle Ron was talking of the past and about their Hogwarts years.

James laughed about the runs to Hogsmead in the night and the things they did in class, or the pranks of uncle George and his dead twin.

And Albus were in his bed and just thought how stupid, ignorant and imbecilic they had been, bringing themselves in danger over a bit of chocolate or a butterbeer from the kitchens.

His small narration was not really something that one would expect of the son of Harry Potter but at least Albus was honest.

Fact was: Harry Potter didn't really have any rules to follow in school, everything was different when it was about him.

He shouldn't have been able to get into NEWTs Potions class, and he never would have managed the class on his own, being a mediocre brewer. If he were anybody else Auror training would never have been attainable.

And he never finished his NEWTs. Yes, in the last year of his schooling was the war, but enough people went back after the war to get their NEWTs, like aunt Hermione.

Albus smiled lightly. When he gave his project to Binns James would hate him. His brother glorified their father and Albus writing something critical would be like blasphemy for him.

His father would understand him or would at least accept his position. And his mother wouldn't be happy but she wanted her children to have an opinion for themselves.

A little sigh.

He could already imagine the loud and vocal reactions of Uncle Ron and grandmother Molly…

The resolve to write exactly what he thought and not what was expected of him had been strengthened by something Madam LeCroix had said when he talked to her about it.

"This war was just a violent disagreement in opinions. And about the right to have different opinions."

If you defined the Voldemort wars like that, or wars in general coming to think of it, then it was his duty to offer a different perspective.

A small grin. It would be interesting to see what Binns would think of his work.


	11. Chapter 11

Professor Binns sighed at the work before him.

Scrolls after scrolls of history projects, a lot of them being done the night before.

He knew what his pupils thought of him and his colleagues weren't any better.

Perhaps he wasn't the most lively of teachers, even when he was still living, but he enjoyed his subject and was disappointed every year of the blase attitude his pupils showed.

Didn't they understand the importance of history?

Was it really necessary to repeat the mistakes from the past?

The war with Voldemort could have been avoided had anybody really learned anything after the Grindelwald war.

For that reason he had created this third year project, when they were old enough to understand the implications and still young enough to be malleable into going against it when they saw it happening again.

The ghost didn't believe in the ways the dead Headmaster Dumbledore had worked, forming his tools into perfectly what he needed of them, he just wanted everybody to think a bit more for themselves.

For years he was looking for the few pupils that really understood what this was about, who understood the beauty and the power of this subject but they were few and far between.

There, the next project about one of the golden trio, with phrases he recognized out of other projects to the same person and a horrific orthography befitting a 7 year old.

That was a T, most definitely.

Perhaps this way the boy would learn something.

Next project was...

Oh, that was interesting. Somebody had done a lot of work, the poject was in book format, bound in gray leather. And it wasn't just in that format, it was as thick as a normal book.

The ghost felt that this would be different than the others he had to mark.

_"The Gray Between – Severus Snape"_

If that wasn't an ambitious topic then Binns didn't know any other.

_"Third Year History Project by Albus Severus Potter, Slytherin"_

At first he leafed to the end for the formal check of a work like this.

A detailed appendix with every source he quoted or took information out, sorted and numbered.

An explanation that the Arithmancy calculations were done by the portrait of Headmistress LeCroix and any personal Information was compiled with the help of the portrait of Headmaster Snape.

He skimmed the first few pages and saw then the calculations of Madam LeCroix.

Different scenarios and possibilities of the war and its progression depending on Snape's side of the war and his level of involvement.

Knowing the brilliance of Madam LeCroix in her field the ghost decided to feel relieved that Severus was really on their side and didn't really spy for Voldemort. Somebody with his capabilities and enough ambition for personal power (something Severus was never really interested in) would have tipped the power disastrous to the other side.

For this project Binns needed time to completely read it.

And when he was through with it he needed to speak with his old friend Wenning-Thorne


	12. Chapter 12

Binns had read every other project this year before he started reading it, he had wanted to concentrate on this one.

A third year.

That was all the ghost thought after he had read the project.

Something like this should have come from somebody doing their history NEWT, not a small third year.

After reading it he made copys and gave it to friends in the history department of the ministry for reading.

They all reacted the same. They thought he joked when he told them the age of the writer.

And with hearing his surname they were even more irritated.  
In the complete work the interaction of Harry Potter and Severus Snape was done as minimal as was tolerable and as neutral as possible. While it could be done it was unexpected.

Especially when it was done by the son of Harry Potter.

Binns ignored this, at least somebody was capable of focussing on what they really wanted to write about.

_The recruiting of the Death Eaters was done in 4 different Steps._

_- identifying potential recruits_

_- finding arguments or weak points_

_- ensnaring the victim_

_- binding him/her_

_The arguments and the ensnaring of the recruit depended on the person and the recruiter._

_While some recruits fell for the idea of pureblood surpremacy, others were recruited through their hate against everybody else, the promise of letting their natures free reign (read: lust in killing and/or sadism), the promise of knowledge, the promise of personal power or whatever else fitted to the recruit._

_The Death Eaters were sorted in 3 categories._

_The Inner Cirle, the most influental and smallest group. They were the real enforcers of Voldemorts rule, the biggest supporters and all chosen for their individual talent and ruthlessness. At the best times the Inner Circle hat 21 to 22 members._

_The next group were the normal Death Eaters. They were marked with the Dark Mark as the Inner Circle but had no real Power and did menial work. They just worked for Voldemort or a member of the Inner Circle._

_It is known that Voldemort sent Death Eaters in need of punishment to Bellatrix Lestrange when he didn't have the time or wasn't in the mood to handle them himself._

_This changed in the second Voldemort war dramatically._

_The Third group weren't Death Eaters in the sense that they didn't have Dark Marks. They supported the idea, gave money, political power or otherwise contributed to the effort but didn't do anything directly. They were the biggest group and a lot of them are still out there, not having been outed in the years from the war to know._

The ghost floated before the portrait of Wenning-Thorne. The corpulent man had the book in his painted hand Binns was talking about.

There were painters that were willing to paint little things to give the portraits something to do. And every book that were ever written could be duplicated in a portrait just with writing the title and author. Nobody knew exactly how that worked but magic was like that.

The ghost and the portrait had been friends since before Binns death. Most of the times they had the same opinions regarding their mutual passion history but sometimes they just agreed to disagree. Now was not one of this times.

"This certainly doesn't sound like coming from a third year at all. I was in my portrait in the history department and they were really interested.

There is a lot of information in this that nobody ever knew about the Death Eaters."

A see-through nod. "I understand that nobody thought to ask before. Concerning Mr Potter, I want to talk to him. He has a very interesting way of presenting his information and is interested in the subject. Perhaps he would be willing to work as a history teaching assistant when he is older."

Both formerly living knew that teaching assistent was a way of sucking a pupil into the field of the respective teacher and goading them into an apprenticeship.

It worked well.

Wenning-Thorne would have something to tell when he was back in the portraits room with the unspeakables.


	13. Chapter 13

Harry Potter weighed the book in his hand.

A friend from the history department had given it to him with the comment that he really should read that.

One look to the title and author and Harry knew he wouldn't be able to wait for after work.

He sat in the Auror office reading the brainchild of Albus.

It was fascinating, this was the first time he found history interesting.

Even with living and fighting in that time he was now given a complete different perspective.

This was an explanation how the Death Eaters and the Inner Circle functioned and the politics inbetween. something Harry hadn't even known had existed.

Voldemort had been a dictator to his followers but this didn't mean that they all had the same ideals or even could stand the others.

Voldemort used his followers according to their talents: Bellatrix Lestrange as torturer, Walden McNair as executioner, Lucius Malfoy for his political workings, Snape himself as researcher and potioneer, Dolohov and the Carrows were more the mindless but loyal henchmen and so on. Normal Death Eaters not belonging to the Inner Circle were more or less cannon fodder.

The low level Death Eaters had the hope of ascending to a higher level and plotted against the others. Even if they never managed to get into the Inner Circle they still had a hierarchy for themselves, a fluid state with arrangements, backstabbing and political manoeuvring.

The Inner Circle was similar in the sense of the different factions but the members were fixed in their function. This didn't mean that they didn't scheme against each other.

Voldemort encouraged this behaviour even as long as it didn't interfere with their duties.

It kept his followers busy and sharp and they couldn't suddenly band together and mutiny against him because they wanted more power for themselves.

You had to be careful when you recruited followers that were characterized by cunning.

With the main focus of the work being Severus Snape, Albus had explained where the spy had stood in comparison to the different factions and how this had influenced his working as a spy.

For example his traditional bad relationship with Bellatrix Lestrange meant a very volatile interaction. Combined with the fact that Voldemorts most trusted and valued followers were Snape and Lestrange didn't make this easier.

Harry couldn't believe this. How could it be that he hadn't known any of this?

He looked over the Arithmancy sheets and didn't even try to understand the calculations. He just skimmed to the results that were written for the idiots like himself who couldn't read an arithmantic equotation to save his life.

He had to owl Albus a response to this project.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

_Dear Albus_

_I was given your history project by a friend who thought I wanted to read it._  
_I have to say: she was right!_  
_Could you imagine your old father sitting there reading a book cover to cover in one sitting? – You managed that._  
_It's unbelievable that nobody ever thought about asking the portrait of Professor Snape about the Death Eaters._  
_I'm very impressed with your work and am happy that you devote so much energy to your schoolwork (not like your parents)._  
_How did you think about working with the Professor? Or, what did you say to get him to talk to you about the war?_

_Your (very proud) Dad_

Albus let out a little sigh of relief.

He hadn't known what reaction to expect from his father. He knew what he could expect from uncle Ron. His parents weren't that predictable.

* * *

Madam Le Croix looked over her calculations and fiddled with the painted quill in her hand.

She had gone here in this portrait with the Unspeakables because it got to loud in the Headmistress office for her. She couldn't concentrate enough to calculate the sales channel of the illegal drug Fairy dust the unspeakables asked her for.

The other portraits knew not to disturb her at the moment, Wenning-Thorne, Lady Carlisle and Madam Hertz sat together drinking tea and talking quietly about the history department in the ministry.

The garden picture was always the place they all met, tea, fruits and crumpets always ready.

It wasn't the only picture they had for interaction or relaxation but it was the one they used the most.

No true english would ever disregard their tea and crumpets. Death didn't change that.

"The history department is debating a complete new procedure in obtaining information from the past. Portraits would be questioned about their time to get more details. This was always done, but this was the first time this was used for the presentation of a complete subculture."

Madam Hertz nodded in her tea. Possible futures went through her clairvoyant brain, letting the new information change everything accordingly.

Lady Carlisle settled her teacup in her hand and looked to Wenning-Thorne.

"Did Binns already said anything to the boy?"

"No, he planned that for tomorrow after reading it another time."


End file.
